Dispute Revolution: The Kleros Handbook of Decentralized Justice

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Working in the blockchain ecosystem is a mixture of producing secure, viable and efficient protocols whilst experimenting with cutting edge technology.

These new social technologies are updating some of humanity’s core institutions such as finance, law and government, enabling communities to respond to the new challenges of the Internet Age.

In the past two years, at Kleros we have focused on one specific aspect of this new governance paradigm: dispute resolution.

In order to make our research more accessible and to kickstart a discussion about the potential implications of this emerging technology, we decided to compile this seminal book: Dispute Revolution. The Kleros Handbook of Decentralized Justice.

The book focuses on a number of key pillars we deem important to understanding the main tenets of Kleros and also broader questions about the nascent industry and academic field of decentralized justice.

Does decentralized justice solve a real problem? Is the solution economically viable? Can the right incentives be created for users to be honest? Is this new resolution method fair? Can it be adopted at large scale by societies?

Contributors include Kleros team members as well as academic experts and industry leaders in law, economics, moral philosophy, computer science, political theory and online dispute resolution.

We are addressing institutions that effectively have not changed for two centuries. In an ever accelerating world, foresight for the future of law needs to come from a humanistic, cross-discipline perspective.

Dispute Revolution does not contain any definitive answers. On the contrary, it tries to pose key questions to be answered.

We would be happy if this book could strike up discussion and became the beginning of a research and development roadmap for this emerging field. We would be even happier if this book could kickstart a community of entrepreneurs and activists willing to push the ideals of decentralized justice.

The book will be available in electronic format on March 4th.

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"We are at the dawn of a new era. The innovations we craft and hone today may shape the lives of generations to come. We have a lot of work to do, but I believe this book is an important contribution to the effort." -

“The very origins of the idea of democracy are now being reborn with the rise of decentralized networks and the need for having fair and efficient governance mechanisms. I’m very hopeful to see the work of Kleros grow and have a profound impact, as it’s able to interact with the many different contexts where technology like this becomes relevant."

-Santiago Siri, President at Democracy Earth Foundation.

"What I find the most fascinating about Kleros is the idea that you are going to leverage blockchain as a space in the ether that allows people to file a complaint using a system based on blockchain, and wisdom of the crowds. This can greatly enable efficiency and reduce costs in a large number of dispute resolution processes."

-Joseph Raczynski, Legal Futurist at Thomson Reuters Legal.

Summary

Chapter 1: Genesis: When Greek Lotteries Meet Medieval Private Law

This chapter addresses the two historical tenets on which Kleros’ technology is envisaged. Through in-depth interviews with three political scientists, Josiah Ober, Peter Stone and Barry Weingast, we explore the roots of decentralized justice in Athens, lex mercatoria in medieval Europe and how sortition fits into the tradition of Western political thought.

Chapter 2: Technology: Cryptoeconomics Unlock the Future of Justice

This chapter covers the technologies involved in decentralized justice. Experts on game theory, such as Hebrew University professor Eyal Winter and our cryptoeconomic researcher William George try to bring these concepts closer to the layman reader. The chapter also helps expand the knowledge base of our expert audience by sharing our learning with smart contracts, building user experience in legal tech applications, as well as presenting proposals for Ethereum standards (or ERCs). Included in this chapter also is an in-depth analysis of Kleros' Doges on Trial pilot, the first experiment in decentralized justice.

Chapter 3: Dispute Revolution. A New Justice Paradigm in an Old World

This chapter deals with the implications this technology might have for law and the broader society. By sharing their experiences in online dispute resolution and research on blockchain and industry, thought leaders such as Gillian Hadfield and Primavera de Filippi explain how decentralized justice might affect the future of law. In this chapter, particular care is taken to analyze the most critical points of any arbitration system - fairness and whether the system complies with existing rules of arbitration.

Chapter 4: The Business of Decentralized Justice

This chapter tries to paint an image of how the legal industry might evolve in the coming years. By bringing in decades of experience in future-centered thinking through conversations with Professor Orna Rabinovich-Einy, Joe Raczynski, Thomson Reuters resident legal futurist, Colin Rule, the creator of eBay and PayPal’s dispute resolution systems, Peter Hunn from Accord Project and legal design expert José Torres, we discuss the opportunities and hurdles in building new legal systems for the 21st Century.

Chapter 5: Scaling Up: the Applications of Decentralized Justice

The final chapter of the book focuses on the use cases of Kleros, where we combine the vision and practice to define the key ingredients which will make Kleros the dispute resolution system of the future. Experts from JP Morgan and Stanford, among others present their research into Kleros as a solution for a plethora of use cases, ranging from decentralized freelancing, decentralized marketplaces, trading in derivatives to fake news, social media, online gaming and AI.

Contributors

Federico Ast, CEO, Kleros

Luis Bergolla, Doctoral Law Student, Stanford

Plinio Braga, Design Lead, Kleros

Nicolas D’Agnillo, Financial Analyst, JP Morgan

Rossana Deplano, Lecturer in Law, Leicester University

Daniel Dimov, Dimov Internet Law Consulting

Primavera de Filippi, Researcher, CNRS, Harvard Law School

William George, Research Lead Kleros

Gillian Hadfield, Lecturer, University of Toronto

Peter Hunn, Founder, Clause.io, Accord Project

Stuart James, Communications Lead, Kleros

Clément Lesaege, CTO, Kleros

Damjan Malbašić, Writer, Kleros

Marco Mauer, Legal Engineer

Joel Monegro, Partner, PlaceholderVC

Alice Namuli Blazevic, Lawyer

Dmitry Narozhny, Civil Law Attorney

Josiah Ober, Professor of Political Science and Classics, Stanford University

Download Dispute Revolution in your preferred format!

You can always sign up to become a juror adding your email to a mailing list. Use of our juror platform is fully decentralized of course but this lets us get in touch to notify of any pilots or real Dapp's ready for you to arbitrate on.